United Way of Story County

Connecting Partners, Eliminating Barriers, and Creating Positive Changes in Health, Education, and Financial Stability for Story County, Iowa 

Summary of Client Results:

• UWSC has a laser-like focus on key goals and a shared sense of accountability for change.
• UWSC can easily aggregate and monitor progress on all their strategy measures across like programs.
• UWSC has become more transparent with data and decision-making, resulting in several industry recognitions.
• UWSC has continued to deliver effective programs and services and make measurable progress despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sample Measurable Results:

• A 10% increase in the number of individuals participating in healthy food access/ nutrition programs from 2019-2020.
• A 35% increase in the number of individuals provided with mental health services
• A 12.7% increase in the percentage of program participants reporting an increased quality of life.
• An 8% increase in the percentage of families reporting an increase in parenting knowledge or skills.

About Story County and United Way

In the center of Iowa lies Story County – once a prairie that has grown into a community of over 90,000 residents. The county (particularly the city of Ames) is a hub for agricultural research and governance. It is home to Iowa State University, with leading agriculture and veterinary colleges and several US Department of Agriculture sites and offices.

Story County is also home to United Way of Story County (UWSC). UWSC leads strategic county-wide partnerships to identify community needs and develop effective human services. They do this by building collaborative efforts that address community-wide problems, measure impact, and introduce innovative solutions and projects. UWSC, like most United Ways, focuses on improving health, education, and financial stability. Unsurprisingly, considering the county’s agricultural leadership and resources, many of UWSC’s programs focus on food access and its implications on resident health and education.

Tackling Food Insecurity with Collective Impact, Results-Based Accountability, and Clear Impact Scorecard

UWSC is leading the charge to eliminate food insecurity in the community. According to the County Health Rankings, as of 2020, 16% of the county’s residents are food insecure. In addition, 10% of residents have limited access to healthy food, and 26.5% of children receive free or reduced-price lunches. UWSC addresses these concerns through emergency food, nutrition education, and food access programming.

Over the past ten years, UWSC has embraced a Collective Impact approach to solving food insecurity and community wellbeing. In 2015, UWSC also committed to utilizing the Results-Based Accountability framework in reviewing their funded programs. This data-driven process helped them move quickly from “talking about” problems to “taking action” to solve them. To figure out their most important performance measures, they asked: How much did we do? How well did we do it? and Is anyone better off? These questions showed them the depth of program engagement, defined the effectiveness of programs, and determined if people were benefiting from the services.

UWSC also purchased Clear Impact Scorecard in 2016 as a tool to help implement Results-Based Accountability locally and make a difference in healthy food access and security. Scorecard helps them in many different ways. Numerous use-cases include:

• Funded partner agencies each have a Scorecard where they report their progress annually, helping to improve collaboration, create data transparency, and promote accountability for progress.
• UWSC’s Hunger Collaboration uses Scorecard to collect food pantry and meal site visitor data to help monitor trends in need and services.
• UWSC created aggregate Scorecards to monitor their progress on all measures tied to their Strategy Map and, most recently, on their 5-year Community Impact Bold Goals.

The public can view UWSC’s aggregate impact Scorecards and strategies at https://www.uwstory.org/impact. You can also learn more about food access data and programming in UWSC’s “Access to enough food and healthy food” Scorecard at https://embed.resultsscorecard.com/Scorecard/Embed/32405.

UWSC’s Community Impact Director, Anneke Mundel, shared that overall, “We have found Clear Impact to be a powerful tool!”

Surviving the COVID-19 Pandemic and Making Measurable Progress

Right before the pandemic hit, UWSC set out to develop a five-year impact plan, what they now call their “2025 Community Impact Goals.” Structured around health, education, and financial stability, three goals will guide their work and investments to ensure real, measurable outcomes for each focus area moving forward.

By 2025, UWSC is committed to achieving the following community impact goals:

• Health: Improve community health by serving 4,500 more people
• Education: Decrease the achievement gap by reaching 30% more underserved learners
• Financial Stability: Strengthen financial stability by increasing the number of people served by 25%

Setting measurements for success and tracking data in Scorecard has helped UWSC develop a laser-like focus on critical goals, create a shared sense of accountability for change, and highlight the need for action.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many programs across the community to decrease the number of individuals served or stop services altogether. Through the first year of working towards their 2025 Impact goals, UWSC knew that change wasn’t going to happen overnight. UWSC remains optimistic in its ability to keep things moving in the right direction through the use of Collective Impact, RBA, and Scorecard.

Despite the setbacks and strains on community services caused by the pandemic, UWSC experienced many successes in the first year of implementing its 2025 Collective Impact Strategy. Notable improvements include:

• A 10% increase in the number of individuals participating in healthy food access/ nutrition programs from 2019-2020
• A 35% increase in the number of individuals provided with mental health services
• A 12.7% increase in the percentage of program participants reporting an increased quality of life
• An 8% increase in the percentage of families reporting an increase in parenting knowledge or skills.

Creating a Culture of Transparency

Due in part to their Collective Impact efforts, RBA, data-based decision-making, accountability, and transparency, UWSC has received many recognitions, including a GuideStar Platinum Level Seal of Transparency and a 100/100 four-star Charity Navigator rating. They were also recognized as a “Pacesetter Community” by the National Campaign for Grade Level Reading for their local Story County Reads program.

You can read more about UWSC’s measurable progress, recognitions, and 2025 Impact goals in their Year One (FY 19-20) Update at https://www.uwstory.org/sites/uwstory.org/files/CI%20GOALS%202025%20booklet%20YEAR%20ONE%20update.pdf.

UWSC is committed to working tirelessly to connect partners, eliminate barriers, and put forth positive changes to reach their goals. With the support of their partners, donors, stakeholders, and residents, UWSC aims to reimagine a Story County that is stronger for everyone.

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